By arts editor Helen Musa

In the lead-up to the 2026 Craft + Design Canberra Festival, there has been much discussion about just how far the concept of design can reach, even into dance.

When I catch up with Alison Plevey, director of Australian Dance Party, which celebrates its 10th anniversary this year, she is happy to assert that dance is certainly a form of design.

“It’s a different form of design. It deals with bodies in space, the way our bodies relate to each other. We call it choreography,” she says.

Of course, there are more obvious elements of design in dance, including costumes, lighting and, where relevant, sets. But Plevey is talking about something more fundamental: the way movement shapes our experience of space and each other.

Her company, alongside sustainable fashion designer Kelli Donovan, of Keli Studio, will explore the connections between fashion, activism, performance and circular design in Clothing the Loop, at the Canberra Institute of Technology’s Woden campus on November 6 and 7.

For the second year running, Australian Dance Party has been thinking about what happens to the things it uses to make a show. Are they sustainably sourced? Can they be used again? What happens when a production finishes?

“Clothing the Loop asks what it means to design, use and value our everyday items, reframing them as a medium for care, creativity and collective action,” the organisers say.

Plevey points to Australia’s high per-capita consumption of textiles and the enormous amount of fashion waste generated by fast fashion. Australians, she says, buy an average of 56 new clothing items a year.

“We want to look at the full life cycle and see how we can reuse what we use in our productions,” she says.

The festival will bring together fashion, architecture, interiors and performance, with panel discussions on the Saturday exploring how designers and artists can build recycling and reuse into their practices. Speakers will include fashion designer Linda Jackson, Play School’s Clodagh Crow and Thor Diesendorf, of Canberra’s Thor’s Hammer.

Participating designers include Keli Studio, Harry’s Clarry, Tree Rose Revival, Fia Lucia, Blaklabel Dreaming, Underground, Wasted @ House of Gesuarda, Magenta Fox, Dissonance and Neo3DT.

There will also be a clothes swap, family activities, campus tours, Auslan-interpreted talks and opportunities for visitors to take part, hands-on, in the Great Global Mend.

In keeping with Australian Dance Party’s reputation for fun, the Friday night opening will be a fashion spectacular, with 12 designers presenting work on the runway, including First Nations label Corella & Crow.

And, yes, Clothing the Loop will feature a new dance work created by Plevey for Australian Dance Party, putting choreography and design in motion.

Clothing the Loop, CIT Woden campus, November 6 and 7, information at australiandance.party

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